Devil's Advocate
by koopychuppy
Summary: 5 years after TLJ, war continues between the Resistance and the First Order. Poe and Rey now lead the Resistance and each send Rose to Cantonica to follow a lead that they believe could change the tide of the war. Caught between her two friends, Rose feels conflicted, especially when an old connection resurfaces. Is this old associate still a foe or has the worn slicer changed?
1. War

War, particularly ones involving multiple planets, were rarely resolved as quickly as one was made to believe upon recruitment. Propaganda posters and battle stories, drunkenly crowed in corner cantinas, triumphantly understated the tedious, time consuming drudgery that was war.

After three long years of endless stalemate with the relentless, and frankly better funded First Order, General Poe Dameron was starting to understand the machine of war and was beginning to wilt under the enormous weight of it all.

He looked around at the worn walls of the haphazardly built command center. Once again they were burrowed in the hollow shell of an old Rebellion post. The old abandoned bones of the first wave of freedom fighters had kept them safe over the years. It was an unintentional legacy left by those that came before. They had never intended their fight to continue so far into the future, yet here they were, still battling the same relentless darkness. General Dameron was interrupted from his thoughts by an inquisitive little chirp. He glanced down at the weathered but still sturdy BB-8 unit whirling next to him. The little droid was chattering away analysis data in little swirls and clicks of Binary. The news wasn't good. Over half of the equipment from their latest duel with the Imperial leftovers was toast. Unsalvageable in their current state. The best they could hope for was to sell it for scrap and replace it.

That seemed to always be the problem. Resources were scarce and no matter how hard they fought or how loyal his troops were, it was never enough in the face of the limitless budget of the First Order. They just didn't have the resources to end the war. General Dameron sighed and gave the little BB unit a pat on the processor. It was moments like these that he missed his old mentor. General Leia could always make the best out of nothing. She had gotten them through countless scraps seemingly through her sheer force of will back when he had been a young hot shot commander. He fidgeted with the gold cuff bangle on his wrist. It had been the General's, one of her many pieces of jewelry. She had specified her possessions to be sold upon her death to fund the Resistance but Poe had held on to the simple slender cuff. It helped to have something to remember her by. The General had been as close as he had to family and the loss of her had been a hard one for him to bear. He missed her dearly. She was twice the leader he would ever be.

He looked down at the holopad lying in his lap. Scrawled across the screen were the names and faces of arms dealers. Equipment had to be replaced one way or another. He grimaced. He disliked having to deal with outsiders. There were always risks involved. The problem with dealers, was that they were a shady bunch. You needed the right kind of leverage to get a good deal out of them. Especially since they often could shake the First Order for a higher payout. It was a dangerous balancing act, getting what you needed without compromising yourself.

Most of the names on his list had been dealt with but one was still proving tricky. The guy was a complete mystery. No name, no data, not even a blurred candid photograph. The only intel they had on the guy was an anecdotal tale from one of the comm techs when he had first made contact. He had used a male voice in that exchange but since then any correspondence had been strictly text based. It was a real feat in that line of work to remain anonymous. Most dealers were well known. It was almost impossible to hide from both the First Order _and_ the Resistance. Most by now had fallen into step under the pressure of the First Order. Those that could remain neutral or leaned with the Resistance were only able to do so due to their considerable regional influence or they were remarkably skilled. For an unknown to still be free was unheard of and yet there he was. New to the scene and the stuff he supplied was a veritable mix mash. Also unusual. He dealt in a little of everything, ammo, encryption chips, the occasional second hand fighter. He was practically a one man pawn shop...or a thief General Dameron thought dryly to himself. The thing was- the stuff was good. Top notch. The kind of stuff that gave you an advantage. If they could pin this guy down for the Resistance then it would be a size-able step in their favor.

The question now was how. All they had to go on was a thin lead sniffed out by, his Chief of Communications, Commander Connix. The spritely and sharp officer had ingeniously tracked the link during their last exchange with the mystery man. The lone dealer had encrypted it well but Commander Connix was an artist with a com unit. She had been able to track the link back to the planet of Cantonica. It wasn't much of a lead. Cantonica was a popular hot spot for many of the galaxies underground- but it was a start.

General Dameron paused for a minute before reaching over and pressing a worn com button on the adjacent wall panel. A little prick of static shock he received in return was a small price to pay for a working system. The person he was paging had been instrumental in bringing it back online and considering the location of this lead, he hoped she would be just as useful now.

"Hey Rose, its Poe." He called through the static.

"Oh General, Hi!" The petite engineer called back. She always sounded surprised even though, as his chief engineer, she had long become one of the first people he contacted.

He stifled a chuckle. "Come on down to command. I need your help with something."

He could hear her confusion crackle over the static. "Okay…I'll be right down."

With a click he let his hand fall from the com button. He turned towards the little droid beside him.

"BB- bring up whatever we've got on Cantonica." He grinned. "I want to see it all."


	2. Pipe Dreams

Good things never last, particularly dreams, and this one was no exception. It had started serenely. Crossing the arid expanse of a Cantonican sand dune into an unfamiliarly familiar adobe home, DJ had set his pack down and walked down into the cool underground interior. Sunlight trickled down in little bands from the burrowed skylights as he passed worn woven upholstery and slipped through the low earthen doorway. The walls were cool to the touch, the earth insulating the space from the harshness of the outside world.

"I'm home." He had smiled calling out and delightfully he heard the quick pads of a small woman's footsteps rush to greet him. He wasn't alone. It was a euphoric feeling and he reveled in it as he waited. He felt warm, safe and wanted. He grinned as the footsteps drew nearer and his companion stepped over the threshhold.

Then everything changed.

The woman that emerged was a ghost. A short pretty little Haysian with curly springy black hair. Her light footsteps turned into heavy stomps as she rounded the corner still clad in the surreal teal of a stolen First Order officer uniform. Their adobe home fell away into the sterile cold of a First Order ship. Instead of furniture and knickknacks there were stormtroopers with blasters drawn. As the dream faded ever faster into a memory, DJ's grin fell. She was now kneeling before him, struggling defiantly as two stormtroopers held her captive.

The ghost of a girl glared at him, eyes blazing, searing into him.

"You snake!" She screamed and suddenly-he was. He lay writhing on the floor, cold, scaly and helpless, as the troopers held her down and readied their weapons of execution. DJ shut his eyes tight as they fell in a menacing arc. No matter how many different times and ways he had revisited this nightmare he didn't have the heart to see the execution. He couldn't bear to think of the light fading from her eyes.

A searing pain ripped through him then. He opened his eyes and recoiled to see himself, still serpentine, cleaved cleanly in half. He could feel and see the life draining out of him. It hurt. He craned to look back towards the ghost girl. She still kneeled there, alive, eyes boring into him and fill with hatred.

Then the world burned. A blast ripped in between them and DJ could feel himself disintegrating. He could see her breaking into little pieces as the ship broke apart around them until there were just her eyes, still blazing with hate, left in the darkness of space. Then everything went dark and he went woke up gasping for air.

That's where he sat now, feeling his pulse hammer against his knuckle as a cold sweat trickled down his nose and evaporated into the expanse of the small little room he was crashed in. Outside nightlife light flickered through the blinds in a kaleidoscope of shifting color. He ran a hand over his face to wipe the damp away and steady himself.

He couldn't get that rebel girl out of his head.

He'd stopped counting how many times he had dreamed of her since the day he had left her and her companion stranded on the ship. Her glare was burned into his memory. He couldn't shake a subtle unease that clung to him whenever he remembered her.

It wasn't guilt. Guilt wasn't something he usually indulged in. The world was cruel. That was the truth. You took what you could and did what you needed to to survive. That's how he had lived since the day he'd landed on the bare desert planet of Cantonica and it was how he'd continued ever since. There was no reason to feel sorry for the rebel girl. She'd brought it on herself by stupidly joining a lost cause. Death picks off those who tempt it.

DJ rolled out of bed and cursed at a lingering tinge of pain in his stomach. He shook his head to clear away the memory of being in two pieces. Maybe it was guilt. He had certainly screwed over a lot of senseless people over the years but never before had any of them imploded in the deep dark of space. He could still picture the impact as the First Order mammoth was cleaved cleanly in half only to shatter like glass in a dazzling inferno. They had shown blurry footage of it in the casino holofeeds for weeks after his return.

That and if he was honest with himself, he had fancied the little rebel girl. He'd always liked spirited women and the girl's tomboyish aloofness and distinctive Haysian features had peaked his interest. He had liked her. He had assumed the First Order would simply keep them captured, make an example of her and her friend. Now he would never know. They were both definitely dead and in a way he had dealt the hand. It didn't sit right in his stomach.

He crossed the room and entered the adjacent fresher. He rifled through the cabinet hung over the small sink until he found the last of a packet of stomach meds. He gulped them down with a swish of water from the tap and stopped to look at himself in the mirror.

After a certain point a few years made little difference. DJ had crossed that point long ago. The only sign of the passing years, he could see in his reflection, were a few fine crowfeet in the corner of his eyes and a beard he had been recently cultivating for an upcoming gig.

He was in the homestretch. Just one more big one until he hung it all up. Then he'd be in the clear.

The money he had traded the two in for had gone a long way in clearing up the mess he'd got himself in, but Canto Bight was merely gilded gold and it wasn't long before he had managed to scrape it all back to expose the shoddy underneath. He'd managed to scrap himself together a small arms business by sabotaging casino systems for a few of the big shots and after this last run he'd be debt and hassle free. He'd owe no one favors. He'd be legit-mostly.

The hit was one of the new flashy joints in the southern district. Gaudy as the rest on the outside but more modern on the inside. It boasted a state of the art randomization program that they crowed could make even the Master Codebreaker rely on luck. DJ knew that was a flat lie but still it would be a tricky thing to bust into smoothly. That was why he was growing the beard. A little anonymity would go a long way in his preparation to take the system down.

He scowled at the mirror and turned back into the room. He crawled gingerly back up into bed and reached for one of the many holopads stacked precariously on the small side table beside him. He flicked the screen on and absentmindedly began to scroll through the information he had collected earlier on the casino. His stomach was settling but his mind was not. He closed his eyes and sighed. He could still see the rebel girl in the after image behind his eyelids. He shuffled back and tried to get comfortable.

It was going to be a long night.


	3. The Twinkle

_I wonder what he wants?_ Rose thought to herself as she climbed out from under the maze of pipes and wires she had been working on. Keeping the old base functional was a full time job and usually whatever the General needed fixing was already down here within reach. It was a rare day when she was called up.

The petite engineer reached for a handkerchief hanging off her back pocket and wiped the grime from her face and hands. Whatever it was, she wouldn't keep him waiting. The General's wild card streak from his flyboy days hadn't left him and he tended to get unpredictable the longer he was left unattended.

Rose grinned, more to herself than to her passing colleagues, as she scampered up to the command center. General Dameron- Poe, despite his hyperdrive climb up the chain of command, had become something close to a friend and he'd always treated her with more deference than she felt she deserved. Whatever he wanted it was sure to be interesting. She could almost picture the twinkle in his eye as his mind worked a mile a minute.

She shuffled past scaffolding and other evidence of recent repairs as she entered into the small worn expanse that was the command room. She made her way past the stations of chattering communication officers towards the back of the room where the General was sitting, legs propped up deceptively casual on the table, leaning to catch the chirping chatter of his astromech companion. Rose smiled at the sight of the little droid. She coughed to clear her throat, not wanting to really interrupt the two. Poe glanced up sideways at her and grinned. He patted the little droid on the top plating and swung around to face her.

"Rose! Perfect! Thanks for coming down so fast." Poe grinned, his mouth full of perfect sharp looking teeth. Rose winced sheepishly. The General was a walking recruitment poster. Sometimes it hurt a bit to look at him.

"No problem, so what's the deal? Something up here need fixing? You know I could have sent up one of my guys."

Poe shook his head at the suggestion. His face fell serious. "You're familiar with Canto Bight yeah?

Rose lifted an eyebrow in mock confusion. "No..Can't say I am." She answered flatly.

This was a lie of course. A jest. Her first mission off base had been in the glitzy casino town and many of the arms and equipment she inventoried were supplied right out of the greedy slick hands of its residents. Rose still wasn't fond of the artificial escape for the rich and Poe knew this. Everyone did. The question was an ice breaker leading to something bigger.

Poe crinkled an immaculate eyebrow and scratched at the stubble that was starting to appear on his chin. "Right...well you may want to get familiar then." He leaned back towards the table and grabbed for the holopad laying next to him. "I'm sending you down there to find somebody for me." He flashed her another quick grin and a wink to let her know he was in on the joke.

There it was- the twinkle.

Rose crossed her arms and let a small smile dart over her lips. "Why me?" She shrugged, "last time I checked the scouts were back from the outer rim."

Poe huffed a good natured puff of air that made his cheeks bulge out like a tooka. "This is more of a personal hunch. Think of it as doing me a favor." He showed her bits of data on the holopad as he explained the whole thing, the bread crumbs of communication all leading to a mystery dealer in Canto. There wasn't much to go on. Rose could see why Poe was reluctant to send out the scouts. There was barely a whisper of a trail to follow. No red plom blossom to hunt down this time.

Rose hated to admit it but she probably was the best person he could send. She was familiar with the town, she wouldn't attract attention or be recognized as easily and most importantly, as the chief engineer, she was the most intimately knowledgeable of the items the dealer was trading in. The tiny little signature details that would give them away. Rose scanned through the list of items. She remembered that batch of cobalt lithium oxide power cells, they were old tech but incredibly useful. They rarely went bad and you could jam them into almost anything in a pinch. That batch of X-Wing interior components too. Old but good. Perfect for war.

"Okay so I find him..." she muttered. "I'm not exactly a people person Poe, or a recruiter..."

The General cut her off with another toothy grin. "Or her! Or it! Rose just do it! For me okay? I think having this guy-gal in our pocket could really stick it to the First Order."

Rose nodded sheepishly, "all right, I got it. I'll do it. I just need a day to prep the guys downstairs."

Poe- The General, gave an excited whoop and threw an arm around her shoulder. "Whatever you need. Say the word"

Rose grinned back at him but her attention was suddenly pulled away by the sharp thudding sound of a swinging door and the yelp of a few startled comm officers. In through the door had burst Rey, the Jedi, and the gust from the door had blown bits and pieces off the desks onto the floor.

Rey rushed across the room and pried Rose away. Her grip was, as always, surprisingly powerful for such a slight young woman. Rose yelped and threw her hands on the young force wielder's shoulders to steady her.

The young Jedi shook Rose slightly. The air and her eyes shook too with an invisible but palatable energy.

"Rose!" She gasped "you have to take me to Canto Bight!"


	4. Visions

The vision had been vivid and just like all the last it has seized her and swallowed her until she was hopelessly entangled in the grip of the Force. A grip she knew she could not escape until it had shown her what it needed her to see.

In warped tones, parlor music lilted from the vents above as she stood in a hazy half there hallway. As she stumbled to get her bearings a trio of children tumbled past her almost knocking her over. She turned and saw a large hulking male barreling after them. Menace dripped from his reptilian eyes and his tusk lined jaw. She stood and leveled her staff to face him but he ripped through her like mist as he ran after the younglings. She gasped as the mirage of herself pulled itself back together before she took off after them down the hall.

The hulking figure shot around the corner and disappeared down somewhere in the maze of dusty dripping browns and musty molding greens. Rey could feel her heart hammering in her chest. She had to find the children.

"H-ello" a timid voice reached out in broken Basic. Rey turned towards the small sound. Tucked into a crevice in the wall was a small rail thin boy. Rey recognized the gaunt tight lines of starvation. She also recognized something else, something more startling. Rippling waves of the force flowed around the boy and through him. He was like her in more ways than one. A kindred spirit. She sat down and placed her back to the boy, covering the crevice with her own equally slight frame. She wasn't sure how much the ghost of herself would hide him but the boy apparently appreciated the gesture. He hiccuped and leaned into her back. Unlike the monster of a man he didn't phase through. To him she was solid and real.

"I called for Jedi to come. For days. You came." He sniffed a relieved sob.

Rey eyes widened. She sighed and shook her head. "I'm no Jedi...I'm not even really here."

The boy shook his head slightly as his tears stained her shirt. "You came. Please help."

Rey looked down at her hands at the constellations of calluses that covered them. How could she refuse? All those years on Jakku she had begged the stars for someone to scoop her up and take her away. She could do it for this boy. She could save him. Jedi or not. She could finally save someone.

"I will but I don't know where to find you."

The boy turned suddenly and gasped. Rey turned with him and standing there at the end of the hall was a dark familiar and bewildered form. The form turned and Rey stood transfixed by the blazing eyes of a man she could not save.

"You!"

"Rey..."

The boy gasped again and tugged Rey's attention away. The shadow of a more present danger lurked down the opposing hall. They were trapped. Rey gripped the little boy by the shoulders.

"Quickly! Tell where you are. I will come for you, I promise!"

The boy answered in a tongue Rey had never heard and pushed past her sprinting away and through the misting form of dark man down into the unknown safety of the maze of halls. Rey stood and turned to face the man left standing before her.

"Still living in the past?" He queried. Rey didn't answer. The dark figure gave a soft snort and an amused smirk twisted the corners of his mouth into something close to a smile.

"It'll be hard to be the parents you never had if you don't know where he is."

Rey bristled at the taunt. "I know where he is!" She huffed. "He just told me."

The eyes simmered down into a softness she missed. "Do you?"

Rey lifted her chin and tried to look unaffected. "I do."

He smiled then, a real smile and shook his head. "You don't."

He crossed the hall towards her until they were face to face. Close enough to touch. Rey flinched but held her ground.

He leaned in closing the distance and whispered in her ear.

"But you will."

And he was gone. The hall was gone and she was left standing in the familiarity of her little room tucked away on the Resistance base. She quickly rushed out of the room and down the hall, hurtling past pilots and mechanics until she found who she was looking for. The tall rickety looking droid was resting in the corner. The lights glinted off the dented gold of his antique covering. He turned at her footsteps and call.

"Threepio!"

"Ah Miss Rey, how was your meditation? I-"

She cut in before the protocol droid could start one of his well known ramblings. The droid was a delight just like all of her mechanical friends but apt to chatter.

"You know a lot of languages right?"

The droid stiffened proudly. "Over 3000 by now I should say."

Rey repeated the jumble of unfamiliar words the boy in the vision had told her. "What does it mean?"

"It's the name of the planet in the native language of the Cantonicans. It's a very distinct language. Quite interesting really."

"Where do they live?"

"From the world of the same name Cantonica. Judging from the dialect I'd say the speaker is from one of the larger oasis. Most likely Canto Bight. You might speak to Miss Tico, she has actually been to the area."

Rey nodded excitedly "Excellent Threepio! Where is she right now?"

The droid shuffled in thought "I believe she is currently with the General."

Rey gave the droid a happy thump on the side casing and dashed off down the hall.

"Thanks Threepio!" She called back behind her.

Canto Bight on Cantonica. She would go there and find the boy. She ran harder down the hall. She would show him. That dark broken man. She would show him that she could save someone even if she couldn't save him. That he wasn't the only one who needed her.


	5. Uncanny

Rose and Poe stared at Rey as she continued to keep an iron grip on the petite mechanic. The General was the first to break the silence.

"Uncanny! Man this Force stuff always gets me." He chuckled and shook out his short curly hair enthusiastically. "How did you know I was sending Rose off base?"

Rey looked up and eased her grip on Rose to look at the General in confusion. "I didn't." She looked back down at Rose. "You're going to Canto Bight?"

Rose flushed at the close proximity. She and Rey had developed a close friendship over the years but the force sensitive still had a powerful- well force to her that easily stupefied those around her. The power radiated off of her in waves. Tangible and warm like beams of filtered sunlight.

Rose managed a nod. "Yeah I am."

Rey beamed "Perfect! Then it's settled I'll go with you."

The General slid an arm to separate the two and faced her with a concerned look. "Whoa, no, Rey you're not going anywhere. We need you for the delegation that's coming this week."

Rey stiffened. "This is more important than putting on a little show for some wish they were senators."

Poe frowned "Is it? I would remind you that those wish they were's supply all our funding...And what about the First Order? You're the only thing keeping their "leader" from blasting us off the surface. What will happen to us if they find out you've left?"

The air rippled softly around her as she considered that with a frown. Rose frowned too. It was a cheap blow on the General's part. He had discovered just after his promotion to General that Rey held some kind of sway through the Force over the current Supreme Leader of the First Order. The nature of the connection was something the young Force wielder kept closely guarded but the specifics hardly mattered. It could be used and Poe had. It was something he had quietly exploited ever since, for the good of the Resistance and while Rose understood it from a tactical standpoint she could tell that Rey resented the invasion of it and chafed under the restriction.

"He-they won't know I'm gone. We can use the newer bafflers Rose built." She ventures throwing another arm around Rose as if the small mechanic could shield her from the General's disapproval.

Poe shook his head, "those aren't ready yet." He turned to Rose, an appeal in his eyes. "Tell her Rose."

Rose shifted hated it when the two argued. She reached up and touched the gold ring that hung next to the worn brassy medallion around her neck. It was in these moments that she missed the one who had given her the trinket. He had been more skillful at keeping the piece between the two than she ever had been.

Poe saw her clutching the ring and demurred, a sorrowful expression flashing and disappearing on his face. Rey looked from his face to Rose and sighed, her shoulders slumping. A uneasy silence fell over the trio.

Poe was the first to break the silence. "I'm sorry Rey."

Rey smiled sadly "I know, you always are."

He grinned sheepishly then frowned. "We really need you here."

Rey sighed. "I know that too." She shifted on her feet considering. She glanced down at Rose. "Rose is going?"

Poe nodded. "Yeah."

Her grip tightened on Rose's shoulder.

"Then I need to speak with her alone."

—

Rose let Rey drag her away from the command center and down the twisting winding halls back to the little room Rey had claimed as her own. The young force wielder ushered her into the space and closed the heavy barrack door behind them. She crossed the short space of the room and flopped unceremoniously onto the cot attached to the far wall. The unmade bedding ruffled in protest around her. Rose hesitantly took a seat on the rickety camping chair left unused in the opposite corner and tried to get comfortable.

She grimaced at the memory of the earlier exchange. "I wish you wouldn't fight like that."

Rey shrugged. "It's not so much fighting as it is him not listening. I'm more than a mascot."

Rose opened her mouth but Rey cut her off before she could say anything. "If you're going to Canto Bight, I need you to find someone for me and bring them back."

Rose ran a hand over her bangs to cover her surprise. This was twice in one day. If her sister Paige were still here she would have laughed and said it was deja vu. She readjusted her memento of Paige, the brass colored medallion and nodded.

"Okay who do you want me to find?"

The young force wielder recounted the haunting vision she had received. Rose's eyes widened at the description of the hulking man and the dark shadow of the Supreme Leader.

"You can see why it's so important I find him."

Rose nodded. "I want to save him too. Couldn't it wait until we can get a unit together? Then we could save all of them."

Rey shook her head violently. "You don't understand Rose, this wasn't just a vision, he was calling me." Her eyes glistened with the beginnings of tears. " _He called me._ That means he can use the Force."

Rose crinkled her eyebrows in confusion. "I don't understand..."

Rey glanced around the room as if looking for someone and then leaned forward. "It wasn't just me who heard his call. Be- Kylo Ren the Supreme Leader was there too. There there. He heard everything."

Rose gasped. "He was sharing the vision?"

Rey nodded. "That why we need to find him first."


	6. Legend

Where do I begin?

With the touch of your skin?

Was there anything else I yearned for?

Maybe there was once but you closed the door...and I forget. I can't see anything but you.

What was it that I really wanted?

All I want now is your voice.

All I want now is to take back a choice

Now that I know the consequences.

How was I to know that you were air?

I took you for granted now I can't breathe.

We orbited each other so naturally I didn't think you'd leave.

I told him, and I told them and I told myself that I didn't care,

But I couldn't look away from your last stare. The light of the moment lingering in your hair. I couldn't bring myself to look away.

You're gone now and I have everything I thought I wanted but this sprawling kingdom is haunted by the ghosts I do not wish to see and memories of you. I've heard of all the things you do. I called you nothing once, they call you legend and I agree. You're glorious.

I'm not who you wanted me to be. I wait here, the wrong man, lonely. The king of the land of solitude I've built for myself. I wait here if only to see if the world might bring you to me again. Our stars crossed once surely there's a chance they may cross again. Maybe out there somewhere is a possibility where we won't collide as enemies and I can be your friend.

I'm starting to think you were all I ever wanted.


	7. The Ponytail

Ivory carved chips clinked and clacked a syncopated rhythm of fevered excitement as all around him a menagerie of sharply dressed patrons clicked equally sharp talons across the assorted flashing screens in front of them. Slick card dealers and lavish hostesses added in a melody and harmony of hushed eager attendance. Casinos on Canto Bight were a veritable symphony of greed and excess. Tonight, however, he was merely a spectator not an accompanist.

"So..." he trailed off eyeing the zeppelin of a man ballooning in front of him. "Why does this place h-have your name all over it? I c-coulda sworn you said I was hitting up a rival."

DJ glanced around wearingly at the molding on the ceiling. Woven like a tapestry throughout were logos. Logos that would never be in a rival casino. The other casinos had class. They didn't need to stake a claim over every inch. He leveled his eyes back down towards the rotund figure in front of him. The man let out a jiggled sigh and heaved himself forward in a futile attempt to look menacing. The casino owner hardly needed to bother with such pageantry. The small army of bodyguards standing sentry behind him were incentive enough to be civil. _At least outwardly._ DJ could internally judge the man all he liked.

The man sighed and raised his eyes up to the ceiling as if there were a god hidden in the molding that could save him. "Politics, you mangy cur. We are. I don't intend to inconvenience that trite little upstart, I intend to ruin him."

DJ could feel a migraine forming behind his eyes. This was starting to become more complicated than he had hoped. Which was partially his fault. Hope usually set you up for disappointment. He'd have to play this carefully. He already had a pretty good idea of what the bald cueball of a man was going to say next but it wouldn't play well to sound too smart...or too stupid. He needed to watch the cards. Hit and pass until he could get out of here. A perfect 21. Black jack

" Alright l-lemme see if I got this f-figured out. Instead of just hurting your rival something good at his grand opening, you're going to hit your own casino?" He ran a hand over the assortment of rings and signets that checkered his hands to steady himself. He was starting to get nervous. Never did help his stutter. The stutter never did help him. He gave the bodyguards a quick scan. "D-do I even w-want to know why?" _Stay calm, breathe, focus on the words before they come out._

The casino owner rolled his eyes and reached for the complicated looking cocktail sitting in front of him on the table. DJ barely heard his snide answer but he knew it contained little information about what he would actually be doing now. He hardly cared. His attention was grabbed by a slight form sporting a fluffy black ponytail.

"Excuse m-m-me" he stammered clumsily before bolting off the couch and down the hall. The casino owner shouted obscenities after him that faded into the dim of the crowd.

DJ weaved and ducked his way until he was gaining on the fluff. His heart hammered in his chest with the exertion and with that queasy dissatisfying emotion. Hope- this wasn't the first time he had picked a ponytail out of the crowd. The chances were slim but by some miracle of miracles he hoped against everything that one day a ponytail he followed would be the right one. The slim woman turned and spoke, laughing, to a companion. DJ skidded to a stop and deflated. Her face was all angles, and full of uncomfortable looking pieces of metal. It wasn't her.

All bets were off and he had just folded with the casino man. He sucked in a deep breath and squeezed the angular all wrong woman in front of him out of sight. Hope had nasty consequences. He considered his options. He could crawl back to the fat casino man and suffer through the rest of his scheming. _Like hell..._ he thought grumpily. He already had a basic idea of the plan. The zeppelin wanted to frame his rival and bring him down in front of the council. It would work but it would also be a pain in the haunches to pull off. Particularly for him. Cheating was his specialty not sabotage. _Good luck trying to explain that to him and the wall of muscle..._ DJ curse to himself under his breath. That bastard could wallow in poodoo. He looked around absent minded. He'd go anywhere but back.

The sun glinted through a stained glass window and cast a soft glow of color across the hall in front of him. It seemed to beckon all who walked past it towards the grand entrance doors at the end. Of course entrances were also exits.

DJ decided that he was tired of the symphony. Let them all waste the day inside ignoring the paradise outside. Canto Bight was more than a casino town. It was also an oasis. To hell with the fat man, the rival and the Council. He was going to catch some sun...and maybe a nap.


	8. Finn

"So what do you think sweetheart?" Rose whispered. The small portrait tucked into the thin metal compact nestled in her palm didn't answer. She didn't expect it to.

She gently stroked a fingertip over the bright sunlight smile. Her first kiss had claimed those generous lips. She missed his smile. She missed Finn.

Rose let out a wavered breath. In the end Finn hadn't been able to fully escape his past. The First Order had sentenced the former stormtrooper to death, just not in the way they had envisioned. Star destroyers demolished more than just planets. They destroyed people. Slowly and painfully from the inside. Discreetly too, none of them had seen the signs until it was too late. He had gotten weaker in little easily missed ways. He got tired or out of breath. Little ways that were so easily swept away by his bright smiles and never ending enthusiasm.

They lived life as if nothing would change. For two years the four of them had rebuilt the Resistance and challenged the First Order. Finn was irreplaceable to the movement. He was the voice everyone listened to. The voice of conviction everyone so needed to hear once General Organa slipped into the Force just as her brother had done before her. He carried the legacy of her spark in him and everyone loved him for it.

Rose loved him for many other reasons and as they fought side by side she discovered that he had found those reasons in her as well. A half year into the fighting, when they were gaining ground, he asked her to marry him. She said yes and the stars that were shining above the base blurred out with her tears.

The next two years had been blissful and productive. The four were unstoppable. Rey and Poe clashed heads as they did now but Finn could always find just the right way to compromise. She knew the two missed him just as dearly as she did and she knew that they both blamed themselves just the same for losing him.

Cancer had stolen him away from them. His own body betrayed him. If they had known, she had heard Poe lament after, maybe something could have been done but Rose didn't know and wasn't certain if the knowing would bring her any comfort or just make his loss all the more unbearable.

She, Rey and Poe had stayed with him in the final months as the med droids worked frantically to stop the inevitable spread of his body's betrayal. He had fought hard the whole time, never giving up hope. Their final days together had been full of it—and love. Which had made their end all the more terrible.

It had been six months since his passing and while the Resistance still moved on in its march towards justice, Rose had found it hard to readjust. One of her ways of coping was to carry his portrait just as she wore the pendant from her sister. A little something to keep with her. She continued to wear her wedding band as well. Something the Force could focus on if it really brought people back as Rey had told her once when they had been grieving together.

She had gotten into the habit of talking to Finn in this way. Running her plans by him and keeping him updated just as she had when they had shared the little room. She was packing for Canto and her knapsack lay haphazardly half full between her feet.

"I hope I can find them both. I'd hate to disappoint either of them." She said quietly to the little portrait and herself. This double sided mission to Canto Bight made her feel uneasy. Not just because she would be returning but because she sensed something brewing between Poe and Rey. Something unsettling and unstable. She worried leaving them alone together. They both stood on such opposite ends in many ways and they were both stubborn. She just hoped they could keep things in balance long enough for the base to remain in one piece when she returned.

She gave Finn one last pat on the cheek before folding the little compact and slipping it into her pocket. She needed to finish. She would be leaving soon enough.

Leaving and returning to Canto Bight.


	9. Temiri

" I did too!" He cried stamping his foot against the stone. His cap slumped over one eye in protest. He roughly pushed it back and glared at the tall child raking in front of him

"You did not." The lanky dark skinned boy retorted exasperatedly in their native tongue, "All the Jedi are dead remember? You couldn't have talked to one."

"Maybe she was a ghost?" Piped the reed thin girl sweeping the stable floor below.

"She wasn't a ghost! She was a real Jedi!" Temiri wailed puffing his cheeks. The small sandy haired boy threw down his rake and tossed himself stubbornly down on a haystack. Arashell meant well but both she and Oniho were wrong. The girl from his awake dream had been real. The dark man too. He knew it.

The awake dreams had been happening more often now. They weren't dreams exactly but Temiri had no other way of describing the strange blend of illusion and reality. Some of the things in the dreams were real. The stable master had been very unfortunately real. He had gotten quite a lashing when the large scaly male had finally found him hiding in a crevice in the underpass of the stables but the girl and her dark companion were different, hazy around the edges, like a score hologram shimmeringly unstable.

"Fine she's real." Oniho sneered, "but she's not here now." The taller boy reached for Temiri's rake and tossed the worn utensil towards his petite companion. The rake hurtled dangerously close to the young boy's face. Temiri threw his hand up. The rake halted in mid air. He pushed himself up from the haystack and pulled the still hovering handle into his hands.

"You shouldn't do that Temiri." Arashell chided. "What if you get caught?" Her voice dripped with worry.

The tall boy grinned wolfishly, "then they'll send him off to a secret lab and chop him up into goop so they can clone him." He mimicked the chopping and goo-ping with his rake, swinging it sickeningly like an axe. Arashell squeaked in terror her face paling into a light ashen green. The frail girl had a weak stomach.

"I won't get caught." The small boy reassured her gently. He resumed his work, scraping and pulling the chaos around him into neat heaps of waste. The other two soon followed,and the three continued their work in silence. Temiri snuck a glance at the willowy girl. Sweat pearled on her forehead as locks of unruly flame red hair bounced and danced with her effort.

 _It was for you..._ he thought to himself. That was why he had called out all those nights ever since he had heard the stable master whispering with the book keeper. They had whispered her name and their jaws had curled ghoulishly like a predator before the kill. They spoke in a mix of Basic and their own tongue, a tactic the two reptilian captors had long used to keep their intents secret but Temiri had been learning. The bits and pieces he had deciphered had made his blood run cold.

Arashell was the oldest of the three and while Temiri had not yet had his first growth spurt like Oniho, she was rapidly blossoming into a woman. Temiri had ripped his spare shirt for her during her first bleeding and had watched as she had metamorphosed, stretching taller than either of them and softer around the edges. He hadn't been the only one to notice. The stable master and the bookkeeper had too.

Temiri loved Arashell. She was his closest friend in the stables. He dreamed of whisking her away somewhere far, somewhere cool and green like the island he sometimes dreamed of on quiet nights. Now that dream was more urgent. They would hurt her or send her away, Temiri was sure of it and he was also sure that he could never let that happen.

"Please hurry," he whispered under his breath and look up through a crack in the stable wall towards the stars. The Jedi girl was real, she was out there somewhere and she would come for them. Where ever they went, Arashell would be safe and they would be together. That was all that mattered.

—

He pushed a stray copper hair back into place as his gingerly placed a cold pack on the swell of the black hole that was emerging and swirling around his left eye. Sitting opposite him was it's creator, and General Hux eyed his "superior" with hardly veiled disdain.

"Supreme Leader," he dripped condescendingly, "we been orbiting the planet for weeks, perhaps we should...land?"

The gargantuan man swung his dark haired head up from the data pad he had been reading to snarl at him through feral ice white teeth. "We aren't attacking until we have all of their bases located and surrounded _General._ "

General Hux chafed at the address. The brooding man in front of him only thinly held claim to his title. Logically it was _he_ who should be Supreme Leader and not, Kylo Ren, the former patriarch's mystical pet. He was the one that had been victorious. He was the one who had tracked the Resistance through hyperspace. All the magician had done was throw things with his mind and fail at every task assigned to him.

Yet it was that power that General Hux so disdained that allowed the former Knight of Ren his literal choke hold on the grand title. As successful as Hux could be he was still mortal and Kylo Ren's power had the ability to end him permanently. The man was dangerous. So he played along and waited these few years. Waited until the perfect opportunity presented itself to strike.

A communications officer coughed nervously behind them. The two turned to eye the thin nervous lieutenant.

"Yes?" General Hux snapped, "what is it?"

The new Supreme Leader threw up a hand to silence him. "Ignore him," he said to the twitchy lieutenant gesturing dismissively at the General. He straightened himself in his seat and lifted a hand to mystically ease a chair across the table back. "You look tired. Have a seat."

The lieutenant gaped slightly at the display. He glanced nervously between the two authoritative men and gingerly sat himself down folding small inside the chair. The Supreme Leader eyed him neutrally and waited patiently for him to speak. It was an annoying habit of his that General Hux found infuriating. For someone so priorly prone to fits of rage the dark sider had become eerily calm around their men since their defeat on Crait. Although he still was as viscous as ever on the battlefield, on the command deck he was illogically soft when dealing with the officers. Hux found it ridiculous. They didn't have time to coddle cowards.

"A ship appears to have left the planet. It appears to be Resistance issue."

Kylo Ren nodded, "I assume we're already tracking its trajectory?"

The lieutenant nodded. "Yes Supreme Leader, General Mitaka sent a emissions tracer after it. Its projected path is pointing it towards Cantonica."

"Thank you, give General Mitaka my appreciation. That was competent of him." The Supreme Leader stood to his full imposing height. "Please ask him to send a scout unit out to the planet as well. I would like to keep them under surveillance."

The lieutenant jumped up and dipped his head into a bow. "Of course, at once." He quickly hurried out of room.

"Why are we wasting resources on a planet we already practically control." General Hux whined. "We should be landing and attacking this one."

The former Knight of Ren turned roughly towards him and snapped. "There is more to winning a war that slaughtering our men in a pointless battle. I am going end this swiftly and finally on my terms not through gross displays of willful disregard."

He made his way towards the door. He paused at the door and turned towards his pale red haired subordinate. "I don't expect you to understand my orders," He hissed, "but I do expect you to follow them."

General Hux frowned as the door shut behind him.

"Yes, Supreme Leader..." he grumbled.


	10. Reunion

He had known there would be consequences to ditching the bulbous casino boss and his numerous lackeys. Still the small tracking device he had found later that day seemed a touch excessive. If the casino boss thought he was getting cold feet there were other more off hand ways of reeling him in.

DJ had chafed at the discovery but hadn't removed the tracker until now. He had kept it rattling around in his pocket while he roamed a few days to throw them off the scent. He lost sleep in some of the more unsavory pockets of nightlife on Canto and alternatively caught sleep on one of the numerous public benches during the day. It was uncomfortable and irritating but he refused to give them the satisfaction of sniffing out his home base. A good slicer had to keep a few secrets after all.

Now, however, now he was sick of roughing it. He wanted a shave and a fresh shirt. He also wanted to do his work in peace which meant it was time to ditch the tracker.

The key to seamlessly ditching a tracker was to cleanly transfer the device onto someone else, preferably someone that looked like they would wander quite a bit and you wanted to do it someplace crowded but not so obvious that the people tracking you started to suspect you were there to make the switch.

That's why he was standing here, at the end of Canto Bight's main canal crossing. The massive cobblestone bridge was teaming with people of all shapes and sizes. The main crossing connected two major sections of the town. Everyone had to cross the bridge at some point living in Canto so DJ was sure no one monitoring his device would blink an eye.

DJ began a lazy shuffle across the causeway. As he bumbled past tourists and merchants he scanned the crowd looking for the perfect mark. He mentally discarded a old merchant man, too predictable with his set route and slid past a gaggle of obnoxiously loud female tourists.

He was about halfway across when he spotted her from behind. She was a rare one alright. Every once in a second blue moon you came across a tourist that wasn't there to gamble. DJ could tell without even seeing her face. Her dark homespun cargo pants and the light grey thermal vest were enough of a giveaway. She wasn't dressed to be seen like the women behind him.

He nodded to himself. She would work fine. Tourists like her liked to wander. They rarely holed themselves up in the casinos like the rest. She'd wander around and take in the sights, and all the while, it would look like the tracker had never changed hands.

DJ readied himself and began making his way towards the girl. He slipped the tracker out of his pocket and let it rest casually in his hand. He took his time, pretending to eye the scenery or a trinket at a stall, until he was nearly upon her. He stumbled past her, letting his shoulder knock lazily into her's as his hand cleanly slipped the small device into her pocket. She let out an angry huff. She hadn't noticed the exchange.

"Hey!" She shouted adding a spiteful accent to the address, "Watch where you're going!"

DJ froze solid. He knew that voice. He reeled as the girl roughly grabbed him by the collar and spun him around. Right there in front of him, ponytail nowhere to be seen, was the Haysain girl from his memories. Her hair tumbled around her face in spirited fluffs of black as she shook him in her grip. Her sharp almond eyes widened in recognition and dismay. She was beautiful-and alive.

"You!"

Her name came out in a choke as his collar tightened around his throat. "Rose-"

That was all he got out before he saw stars and his breath caught in his throat. His eyelids fluttered in confusion until he glanced down and discovered that the girl's knee had connected with his groin. A sharp indescribable searing sensation followed instantly after and he doubled over in pain. He didn't hear what the girl shouted at him next. Her face told him that was probably for the best.

That was when her fist connected with his jaw. After the right hook, he saw nothing.

When he came to moments later both his tracker and the dream girl were gone. The old merchant man stood over him eyeing him curiously. DJ groaned and took the hand the old man offered him.

"Women eh?" The old man cackled knowingly pulling him to his feet. All he could do was nod in agreement. The pain made the already difficult task of forming words correctly even more of an effort. An effort he couldn't concentrate on now when it took all of his willpower for his eyes not to water.

It was funny, she had been just as angry in his dreams but never as violent. That was almost as much of a surprise as finding her alive.

She was alive and here in his town, on his planet- with his tracker. DJ nodded his head in thanks to the merchant and continued across the bridge. As he gingerly walked his mind quickly outran his legs.

Rose was the worst person he could have placed the tracker on. He didn't know her well enough to predict her movements with the precision he preferred but knowing she was Resistance was headache inducing enough. Canto Bight was a neutral port on an uncaring planet but that didn't mean everyone who lived there was. His own particular problems, the ones who currently distrusted him enough to track him, preferred the First Order. Having the tracker run rampant through the Resistance sympathetic districts was the last thing he needed. They'd scoop her up in a heart beat and throw her in a city cell on some made up charge until she told them whatever they wanted to hear. He'd have to get her out before it came to that. He had too much riding on this last job to let the little spitfire thrash around and burn it all to ash. That and even considering the lump forming on his jaw, he was almost fond of the girl in his own way. Seeing her alive had been surprising-in a good way. He wouldn't admit it but she, the soldier and the little droid, had been the closest he had ever come to actual friends. Of course he had self sabotaged it all into smithereens, literally, but the twinge of curiosity was still there. She was interesting.

Reaching the end of the causeway he glanced down at himself. The grime on his dark spun shirt stared rudely back at him. Going after the rebel girl would be a headache but sometimes you had to look on the bright side. Even with a rabid rebel to rescue he still had time to go change. He could finally have that fresh shirt. DJ chuckled softly to himself and quickened his pace. If he hurried he could probably manage a shave too.


	11. For Rey

Everything about the man reflected back at her, in the cold reality of the mirror, was in excess. His long angular nose was just a little too big, too sharp, his chin a tad too wavering- his ears, that he clearly tried too hard to keep covered by his dark thicket of curly hair, were a bit too big and the tips of them poked out in willful defiance. His mouth betrayed too much emotion and his eyes were the epitome of it all. Intense, they burned, giving away too much and yet in the same ember glint not nearly enough at all. They were selfish- those eyes of his.

Looking at him now, Rey found that she missed the cold anonymity of the dark forbidding mask he had used to wear. It was easier to accept him then. Easier to understand him when he had been nothing but a monster and nothing of a man.

Rey splashed cold bracing water on her face, his face, and shook out the excess in a spray of spattering droplets that flung themselves from his unruly, just awoken mane and coated the cold durasteel sink in an artificial dew.

The bond between them had not severed that day, long ago on the First Order flagship, and the force had steadily twisted and curled like a vine in the time thereafter until they both were hopelessly immeshed in it. Anger and resentment had led both to attempt to prune it back several times over the years but each attempt at separation had only made the bond stronger, more unpredictable.

First it had been the sounds. In the first year after she shut the door of the Millennium Falcon in his face in what she had naively thought would be the end of it, her ears had caught glimpses of his voice. She would whirl in hallways, turning lightsaber ignited, as a fragment of his anger sounded in her ears. They were rarely directed at her she would soon find. Stealing an Empire from your master created confusion. There were those, that had become too comfortable under the hand of Snoke, that were uprooted during the shift of power and they protested. Within a year these voices stilled. They would find that the hand of their new master was just as heavy. They were transplanted and settled.

Next it had been dreams. He had invaded in the night and so had she, seeing things that both would have rather kept hidden. This combined with the reemergence of his apparitional appearance in the daytime created a maddening confusion. For a period of two months neither of them could tell what was a dream and what was reality. That was the second time they had tried to sever the bond. They shut each other out for sanity.

That was when the Force took an unexpected turn. It had been in the heat of battle. Rey had swung her new lightsaber, antique in design but truly her own, in looping sweeps of ice blue. Stormtroopers fell around her like leaves. That was when it happened. Rey had whirled, sweeping herself into a deadly arch to cut down the final opponent before the next relentless wave, when suddenly her mind had hummed and in that split distracted second she had found that it was not a trooper at the end of her blade but one of her own. It was too late to dodge. Her body in muscle memory followed through and the groundsman in front of her was irreversibly severed. In horror Rey stumbled back as the lifeless body had fallen and wretched as blood seeped into the fallen man's uniform, the red of the Resistance emblem swallowed in congealing crimson. Around her were dozens of fallen Resistance members. Rey choked back tears. He had been the last of them. They were all gone. Dead. Destroyed. She was a monster.

That was when she noticed the gloves- and the spiteful red glow of her fallen saber.

His fallen saber. His gloves. His hands. Rey had stared down at herself in horror. Clenching and unclenching the large bony hands in disbelief. She wasn't herself. She was Kylo Ren.

Panicked she had looked around. She wasn't even on the same planet anymore. She had no idea where she was or what she- he was supposed to be doing. She ran, stumbling on long too tall legs and gasping air into huge lungs. She ran without thinking over the battlefield, tumbling over her fallen allies. It didn't matter where she went as long as it wasn't there.

She had almost reached the end of the field when that same intense humming slammed into her brain. Rey had fallen then, bashing her cheek on the rough gravel, and when her eyes had opened she was herself again. Finn had sprinted towards her and scooped her up. She had let him drag her back to base.

Finn and Rose had insisted she see a med droid but the perplexed and polite hunk of metal could find nothing wrong with her. Rey had refused sedatives. She wasn't hysterical only numb and tired.

It alarmed her friends but Rey had insisted and for the next few weeks she had kept to herself. Just as she had anticipated, they swapped again-and again. Rey sat in on meetings, piloted Tie fighters and had a very unfortunately memorable experience in a First Order fresher before the Force had mercifully brought them face to face once more. As ever Kylo Ren- Ben was a scholar about it. He had spent his time in her body fascinated and surprising docile. She had to interrupt his observational musings five times before they could settle on ground rules.

Which had led to where they were now. They had settled into an almost comfortable routine. Every so often Rey would awake as the Supreme Leader but now, where there had been panic and confusion, there was only routine. They had agreed that espionage was an undesirable outcome for both parties so both had agreed to confine themselves in their quarters until the experience passed.

Which was why Rey was currently standing shirtless in the middle of a small First Order sleeping quarter drying off his hair and glaring at a bowl of fruit resting on the table.

Ben as much as he hated the Jedi, lived hypocritically close to the lost order's monastic standard. The small room was bare of any of the luxury trappings of power than Rey had assumed would be there. There was no gliding, the sheets on the comically small bed were standard. The only thing close to luxury in the room was the fruit and it was for her. The scrawling script on the handwritten note placed carefully underneath said so.

 _For Rey..._ it proclaimed in understated scrawling script. Nothing more. No apologies, no pleading requests, just a bowl of fruit with her name on it.

Rey took a step closer and reached into the bowl selecting a crisp looking willow-pear. The subtly spiked fruit wafted a tangy sweet sent as she pressed into its golden flesh with a calloused thumb. She gave it a quick sniff. It was ripe and didn't appear tampered with. She took a bite and let his eyes close as she relished the sweetness. Juice dripped down his chin and she wiped it away with the back of his hand. She crossed the room and sat on the small little bed as she devoured the tart yellow fruit.

It annoyed her how well he knew her despite the bond they shared. That he knew she woke up hungry. That he knew which fruits she liked. That he even bothered at all with these little human gestures of his.

That's what annoyed her the most. That he was human. That she knew him just as well. Knew he would wake up thirsty. Knew that he would find no offering set out for him and be disappointed that she hadn't returned the favor. Knew that he would forgive her and that when she returned she would find another of his maddeningly human gestures waiting for her crafted by her own hands.

Rey sighed and flopped back on the small bed. She relaxed feeling the mattress creak under the weight. If she were honest with herself, she preferred being this way, tall, broad and powerful. She felt safe.

-but she wasn't honest and the Force knew this. As if on cue her brain sparkled around the edges and Rey shut her eyes.

 _I don't want to go back._ The only thing waiting for her on the other side was another empty room and a day full of obligation. She kept her eyes shut tight. She knew that when she opened them she would be herself again. She would be the last Jedi. Small and afraid.


	12. Cell

It was a funny thing. Even after the fall of the Empire, there were still little Imperial bits and pieces scattered around the galaxy. Holding cells were one of them. Each one a cold, damp, durasteel and stone remnant of a crueler more ordered time.

This holding cell was no different. It served its purpose with little need for interference and so the inhabitants of the city had left it, to fester and simmer with moss, until they needed it.

Rose gazed absently at the well worn ring hung loosely next to her Haysian smelt pendant hung around her neck and smiled sadly at the simple golden circlet as her mind looped in a cycle of calculating and wistful thought.

She was stuck. Not even a day planet side and she was trapped in an underground cell. She missed Finn. Finn would have had a plan. He was always good at getting them out of scrapes like this. She looked around the small damp holding cell. It wasn't much different from the first cell they had been trapped in all those years ago on Canto Bight. Funny how life echoes itself in little ways. She closed her eyes and leaned against the cool stone wall. Finn was also good at lifting her spirits when things seemed hopeless. Things were looking bleak and it was times like these when she most missed her husband.

Rose blinked back tears. The wound of grief was still fresh enough to make her eyes water at the thought of him. Especially here on this stupid blasted planet, in the stupid town, in this stupid cell because of a stupid man from a long past memory.

A tear slipped down her cheek and she sighed. She needed to stop feeling sorry for herself. She had a mission to do here. An important mission.

She swallowed. The lump of grief slowly turned into a clump of anger as it made its way painfully down her throat. Of all the people she could have run into, it had to be that wriggling snake. She allowed herself to fume self righteously as she remembered the way that horrid man's face had folded in shock. He probably had thought she was dead. That he had gotten off for his crimes. She rubbed the fading bruise on her knuckles and smirked. He'd been dead wrong on both counts. She was alive and the slicer would pay. She would see to that.

The sound of debris softly hitting the stone floor made her turn with a start. Shifting up the hallway was the stocky cloaked shadow of a man. Rose shuddered. Probably some lowlife. An informant or some other sack of bad news or worse the unsavory men who had thrown her here and demanded some tracker she knew nothing about. She shuffled further down the bench of her cell into the corner hoping the shadows would conceal her as the man made his way past the entrance of her cell.

The shadow loomed across the stone floor of the underground cell complex as the man came into view. Rose drew a breath and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle it. It was a familiar silhouette.

As the man came around the corner memories flashed before Rose like the stars in hyperdrive as each step brought his features into the dim light of the underground hall. A scruffy stubbled smile back lit by the lights of a stolen ship. Long calloused fingers twirling her oh so precious half moon pendant. Cool brown caf colored eyes looking down at her under heavy lids as she kneeled surrounded by stormtroopers. Sharp pearl white teeth full of lies and empty promises. A purpling bruise from a rather well placed right hook. As if her thoughts had summoned him that snake of a slicer had appeared and was slithering down the hall. No doubt looking for revenge.

The slicer walked past her cell and for a brief moment Rose breathed- relieved. He hadn't seen her. For all her anger she was reluctant to face the man again. She slumped against the bench and gulped in a breath of the stale cell air. The relief was short lived. Hearing the squeak of boots on the stone she scrambled back upright. Too late. He had spotted her. He stood there staring at her. Staring, eyes displaying nothing, just like she remembered.

"Ah," he exhaled finally, smiling.

"Trapped a-again?" He chuckled dryly letting his weight roll back on his heels. Now that she looked at him, he seemed thinner than before, wiry, with more lines in the corner of his eyes, but still a dust hued ghost of a man. Rough and gusty like a sandstorm. "We really should stop meeting like this."

"Go away!"

The slicer laughed. A deep rumble that echoed lightly off the walls. Suddenly his face grew serious. Wistful almost. He took a step toward the cell door and leaned into the bars towards her. "I-I came to get you out." He said simply.

Rose scoffed. The last time he'd gotten her out of a cell she had almost paid with her life. She didn't believe him for a second. It had to be a cruel joke or worse another one of his sneaky tricks. He was either toying with her or in it for the profit. A lying snake who only cared about credits. She snarled.

"For what? Old times sake? Don't make me laugh." She jeered. He continued to look at her cooly, expressionless. He had always been an enigma.

"Or am I supposed to pay up later?" Rose spat angrily marching up to the gate and grabbing the cell bars in frustration. She gritted her teeth. "I suppose you need another piece of Haysian smelt."

The scruffy codebreaker cocked his head to the side eyeing her under heavy lids. He hadn't lost any of his old annoying habits. He still moved with deceptively slow feline movements.

He shook his head and scratched the back of his head almost nervously. "N-not interested in your jewelry. I'm h-here to help you."

He was awfully close, she realized, and taller than she remembered. Rose blushed reflexively and chided herself. She felt the urge to back away but instead she steeled herself stubbornly in place and looked him straight in the eye.

"Help me?" She hissed shrilly, "You're the reason I'm even down here!"

He clamped a hand over her mouth. "Not so l-loud missy. Y-you're going to g-get us caught."

Rose growled and nipped the large calloused palm. The slicer drew back in surprise. "Y-you bit me!"

Rose snarled. If anyone deserves to be down here it's you!"

The slicer gripped the bar with a white knuckled hand and gritted his teeth. "N-now you listen here-"

Rose struck and gripped the dusty man by the scruff. "No you listen!" She snapped, "You think you can just waltz in here? After what you've done?" She scoffed, "You aren't fooling me."

"I'm n-not..." he protested. Rose didn't let him finish.

"Help me? Yeah right!" Rose steamed. She could feel herself boiling over but she didn't care. How dare he? How dare he appear once again and ruin everything. Rose shook the slicer by the collar and howled, "This is just some trick so you can cash in on another deal with the First Order isn't it?"

That was when it happened. The slicer's eyes flashed dark. He reached out and grabbed her roughly by the collar and pulled her in. Rose had barely blinked when their lips collided. He kissed her rough and hard. Angry. Her mind blanked.

She was still short circuiting when he pulled away from her grip and released his own. He stared down at her with focused feral eyes.

"No." He said. "It isn't." He reached into the lining of his coat and pulled out a slim chip. He inserted it into the lock mech on the door and turned it with a quick flick of the wrist. A faint click echoed between them before the door swung open with a creak.

"D-do you want out or n-not?" He threw the question behind him as he turned on his heel and trudged down the hall. "I-it's up to you" he called back with a shrug.

Her cheeks burned as she watched him start off down the hall. She huffed angrily and jogged down the hall after him. It wasn't like she had a whole lot of options. It was either follow or stay and Rose was now completely certain of one thing. The slicer would pay.


	13. Touché

The kiss, DJ thought begrudgingly, as he hustled down the corridor, had been a misstep. He wasn't sure what had come over him. Probably too many hours wasted on late night holos or not enough time feeling anything but apathetic. The rebel girl certainly made him feel anything but. That or it was the dreams. He still felt unsettled to see her in the flesh. That was new too. For the first time in a long time he was feeling something. Still there had probably been more effective ways to silence her.

He flicked a quick glance back towards the pint sized mechanic. She was hardly silent. She jogged after him, spewing obscenities at his back as they made their way through the maze of underground halls. DJ knew where he was going but he wasn't sure they would get there in one piece with her mewling like a wet tooka behind him.

He stopped abruptly and gripped her by the arm as she collided into him.

"Switch off-f!" He whispered harshly. "You want the whole c-cell b-block to know we're here?"

"Or what?" She bit back. "You'll assault me again?"

Anger. Huh...That was new too. "A-assault?!" He sputtered. "Like you clonking me in the nuts back there?"

She knocked his arm away. "Self defense, I knew you were up to no good and I was right. You and your dumb tracker are the whole reason I'm even in here."

DJ scowled. This was the problem with dreaming about women. You forgot how annoying they were. He leaned in, letting his height make as much of a statement as his words. If the rebel girl wanted a fight in the middle of the hall she'd get one. "Or m-maybe it was you s-socking me over the head b-before I could get it back?" He countered.

She snarled, her nose crinkling. It only furthered the feline impression. "What would you do to someone who left you to die?"

The words were claws that ripped across his face. He stepped back surprised at how much it stung. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but there was nothing there. She was right.

All the fight deflated out of him then and he suddenly wondered what he was doing here standing with the rebel girl. What was he trying to do?

Whatever it was it wasn't working. Having spent so long on Canto, he knew when to fold. He turned his back on the girl and her fluffy curls and quickened his pace down the hallway.

He could hear her feet shuffle on the stone in hesitation as he walked away. If she was smart she would follow him out. If she was stupid she would stay there gawking until one of the guards noticed she was missing. Either way not his problem. He had opened the door for her hadn't he? If he owed her anything the debt had been paid with that.

"Hey!" She called after him, her voice suddenly fragile as it echoed down the corridor, "Where are you going?"

He couldn't help himself, he sneaked a glance back at the little mechanic. She stood there, gripping that damn pendant of her's, and stared at him with the eyes from the ship.

Damn those eyes...

"Out." He called behind him, "I need a drink."

He continued on. This time footsteps pattered after.


	14. Best Caf in Canto

Following the scruffy snake of a slicer as he slithered out of the cell block had made sense. He obviously knew that damp dark place well enough to get in so it was logical to assume he could get out. Now though, as she kept a wary pace behind him as he wove his way through the busy streets, she had to wonder what she was doing.

Rose kept one eye trained methodically on the slicer's back as she considered.

It wasn't vengeance. Rose had moved on long ago- or at least she thought she had. Coming face to face with him had left her more than a little shaken. She was used to people remaining in the past. Having them appear in the flesh in the present wasn't something she was prepared for.

On second thought, maybe that was part of it. She wanted to see him pay in some small way for what he had done to them on the Finalizer. Rose brushed past a merchant struggling over a cart tumbling with fruit as she continued on after him. The slicer's pace while quick was kept gingerly and she could see, with more than a little satisfaction, that she had hurt him good. Perhaps he was paying after all. What was it then that kept her feet moving? What was it she wanted?

Maybe, and she hated to admit it, maybe she needed him-or at least someone like him. Someone who knew the town. A lead. Something.

Ever since she had landed in Canto, Rose had been at a loss. Unlike Maz, Poe and Rey were terrible at describing just who exactly she was supposed to find. All she had to go on was a comm link number for Poe and a drawing from Rey. The sketch was good, if a little strange stained out in a sweep of brown caf on a scrap of packaging, but better by far than the comm number tucked unceremoniously in the notes of her personal holopad. Still even a well done rendering was hopelessly inadequate in the sea of people that was Canto Bight. Before she'd been grabbed she had hardly made any progress at all.

The slicer was as good of a lead as any. A guy like him knew things. Dusty shifty underground things. Like how to get out of prison cells and where giant reptilian thugs kept innocent children- even if he didn't know surely he would know how to find who did. That's what slicers did. They poked their nose around where it didn't belong.

Rose picked up the pace as he rounded the corner. Okay, so she needed his help. Would he even help her? Maybe he would. He had come get her out. Maybe he had grown a conscience since they parted ways?

Both Finn and her sister Paige had always ruffled her over her tendency to rely on others but what else was she supposed to do?

Her thoughts were interrupted as the slicer turned into an unseen corner. She scrambled to keep pace but when she rounded the corner he was nowhere to be found. She scanned the street in front of her. Nothing.

"P-persistent aren't you?" A familiar voice quipped behind her. Rose spun on her heels and directly behind her standing at a doorstep was the slicer.

Rose swallowed as her heels dug in the lose gravel of the duracrete path. She steeled herself and stepped forward. If he had truly grown any kind of a conscience there was only one way to find out. Rose squared her shoulders. "Of course I am," She charged, in as confident a voice as she could muster, "You owe me."

He gave her an appraising once over. "Is t-that right?" He grinned wolfishly, "for what?"

Rose wracked her brain. She hadn't thought that far ahead. If Finn were here he would have scolded her for winging it-but Finn wasn't here. She was on her own now... "For dumping that tracker on me!" She spouted accusingly.

The slicer shook his head, "N-nope, got you out, we're even." She half expected him to take off again but he only leaned against the rough cobblestone walls as if waiting for her to try again...so she did.

"For the kiss." She said taking another step closer. _Kriff..._ Her cheeks burned as soon as the words left her mouth. She glanced around. Tourists and merchants continued to mill down the streets as if she had never said anything at all. _What am I saying?!_ Her brain howled. She threw her shoulders back. It was a stupid excuse but just maybe if she tried she could sell it. That's what this stupid town was all about right? Bluffing?

Rose stomped forward into the space between them. The slicer flinched at the sudden bravado. His eyes widened as she dared to step even closer. Soon they were a pace apart. Close enough for her to reach out and grab the ends of his coat if she wanted. She muscled through the embarrassment and the heat on her cheeks. She planted her hands on her hips and tried to stand tall.

"Do you think those are free?" She asked roughly, shooting him an angry glare. Would he call her on her bluff? Rose lifted her chin defiantly and waited to find out.

He stood there for a moment, looking at her unblinking with hooded caf colored eyes. His pupils flitted across her face as if he were a droid calculating some probability. They glistened and he blinked with a conclusion. Rose thought she saw a hint of red warming on the tips of his ears. Then he burst into a wide grin and side stepped out of the path of the door.

"Alright," He wheezed with a breath of a chuckle, his sides hitching lightly with mirth. "S-step into my office." He pushed the door open with one hand and motioned Rose to enter with the other.

Rose took a deep breath and scampered up the steps.

—

Whatever Rose had been expecting to find behind the door, a bustling family style diner wasn't it.

The slicer settled into the nearest booth, like mold, sprawling out to cover every inch of the sagging plastic upholstery with his own permanently slouching form. Rose primly positioned herself in the opposite booth and waited with pressed lips, her arms folded tightly in her lap. A service droid glided over and addressed them in chipper robotic tones.

"Welcome to Dundee's! Voted best caf in Canto! How may I be of service today?"

DJ propped his head up on his elbows and gave the droid a half grin. "A cuppa caf would be j-just f-fine. I'll take it b-black yeah?" He turned to Rose "you want anything?"

Rose blinked. The diner itself was surreal enough. Being offered a drink was just— not what she had expected. She faltered looking around the bustling little place in a panic before looking wide eyed at the slicer. As if he would have any answers. He only cocked an eyebrow in silence. _Say something dummy!_ Her brain screamed. Rose shifted uncomfortably in the pleather of the booth. "oh um...I'll take a cup of caf too. One cream please."

The droid chirped enthusiastically, "of course, we offer standard blue or siren green, which do you prefer?"

"Blue please."

The droid whisked away towards the kitchen. As it disappeared out of sight, DJ rolled his eyes over to look at Rose.

"So..." he started.

Rose folded her arms over her chest and leaned back into the booth. "So..."

He didn't answer. He grabbed a salt shaker from the little utilitarian rack at the end of the table. He turned it in his hands before shaking a bit of it's contents in his palm and tasting it. Rose watched him as he let the leftover grains run over the meat of his palm, creating little dunes in the crevices of his lifelines.

She picked up the salt shaker and returned it back into place with a clink as the glass shaker nestled back into the safety of the rack. The sound broke him from the little desert forming in his palms and he looked up once more to meet her gaze. His tongue darted nervously over his lips.

"What do you want f-from me?" The question fell from his lips and landed in the silence between them like the soft thwack of playing cards after being dealt from a dealer's hand. He shook the remnants of the salt from his palms and watched them fall like snow to the floor.

Rose let her hand rest on the linoleum of the table and drummed her fingers over the surface. "I'm looking for someone..." she paused then corrected herself. There were two of them after all. The dealer behind the comm number and the child from the vision. "Someones."

He pouched his lip out in thought- considering. "Alright" he muttered. "Got a n-name?"

Rose shook her head. "No."

He winced, "description?"

She slipped out the scrap of packaging bearing the sketch and a small portable holopad. She punched over to the comm number and slid the fragments of information over. "I have these."

He ran a calloused finger over the edges of the sketch. "Strange friends you've got...w-who writes anymore?"

Rose kept her face carefully neutral. In all honesty she had wondered about that herself when the young Jedi had handed her the carefully folded slip. The drawing was good, far better than anything she had ever seen Rey attempt. She had asked about it on impulse, when the smooth surface had touched her fingertips. Rey's face had paled in panic at the question but she had only shaken her head in response. "It's from a friend," was the only information Rose had been able to pry from her on it's origins. It must have been some friend. Not only was the drawing incredibly well done but it was clearly crafted with care. Underneath the sketch was a message scrawled in elegant hand. _For Rey-_

He tapped the sketch with the back of a fingertip. "I d-don't usually play d-detective..." he drawled.

Rose moved the holopad over closer towards him. "But you'll do it. Right?"

He handed the sketch back over. "Help you find a kid? S-Sure." He grinned again. "You sure are expensive."

Rose rolled her eyes and nudged the holopad. "...And this guy."

He let a indignant sort of snort escape from his nose but nodded and pulled over the holopad. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small pair of reading glasses. He slipped the pair on the bridge of his nose with a practiced flourish and squinted down at the comm number.

It flashed in a faint glimmer in those caf colored eyes of his, and in the slight twitch of his lips as they parted ever so slightly. For a brief second his face crinkled around the edges in recognition but it was soon gone and his jaw set with a determined edge back into the lazy uncaring neutrality he usually wore there. He slid the holopad back roughly.

"N-no," he answered flatly as the droid arrived with the two steaming cups of caf. He claimed them both and set the lighter of the two down in front of Rose.

He shook his head as he watched the steam rise from the dark pool of liquid.

"N-no, not that one."


End file.
